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YOUTH-LED ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 2

CONTENTS

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

II. PREFACE 2

III. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 3

IV. CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND: CLIMATE EMERGENCY 4

V. THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS (CCC) 5 A. Youth Engagement in Climate Corps Design 6 B. Transnational Coalition Building 7 C. Scale 8

VI. PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT 10 A. Stanford Deliberative Democracy Practicum 10 B. Arizona State University Participatory Technology Assessment (pTA) 10

APPENDIX A: YES (YOUTH ENVIRONMENT SERVICE) 11

APPENDIX B: CASE STUDY: MOCK COP26 13

VII. SOURCES 14

@berggruenInst www.berggruen.org Bradbury Building 304 S. Broadway, Suite 500 Los Angeles, CA, 90013, USA YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 1

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We recommend that:

e applaud U.S. President Biden’s Youth should serve as core participants WJanuary 27th Executive Order 1 and co-designers; announcing his intentions to establish a Civilian Climate Corps (CCC). In its the CCC should focus on building ongoing conversations around the YES 2 transnational coalitions; and (Youth Environment Service) campaign, the Berggruen Institute’s Future of the scale of the CCC should be Democracy team has developed a set calibrated to the massive scale of of recommendations for a successful 3 the problem that faces us through service corps equipped to address the a jobs program. climate emergency, and to assist in post-pandemic economic recovery. Given the magnitude of the climate crisis, each of these elements will be crucial to ensuring meaningful steps toward climate action.

RIGHT: January 2021. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden. Archna Nautiyal / Shutterstock.com YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 2

II. PREFACE

The policy recommendations below emerge from ongoing conversations around YES, a cornerstone of the Berggruen Institute’s 2019 reform plan, “Renewing Democracy in the Digital Age.” This plan was developed by a broad range of democratic practitioners and reform theorists, and driven by Martin Moore, Director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power at King’s College London. Throughout 2021, the Berggruen Institute will continue to engage youth, community, and policy stakeholders, host workshops and town halls, and organize deliberative assemblies to promote YES.

YES originated in a pre-COVID-19 context, and initially responded to a set of concerns that are discrete from, but overlap with, the ones we face today. Initially, YES emerged as an effort to address young people’s frustrations with the political process, and their lack of opportunity to develop the skill sets necessary to engage in meaningful dialogue with one another in a multicultural, diverse environment. YES aimed to bring them together around a common project focused on national environmental service, a project that could enable the development of those critical skill sets and competencies. YES retains a focus on new forms of democratic participation for youth populations, and will explore possibilities toward that end through governing bodies known as deliberative assemblies or “people’s assemblies.”

While YES was in development, the pandemic hit, and brought with it a massive economic shock for the current youth population. In the wake of COVID-19’s effects, it became clear that YES would need to prominently foreground an economic recovery component, in order to support the current youth population and prevent it from becoming a lost generation. For more information on YES, please see Appendix A: YES (Youth Environment Service). The themes of YES remain a top priority for the Berggruen Institute’s Future of Democracy program in 2021.

Following the release of President Biden’s “Executive Order On Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” on January 27th, we have extrapolated the key aims and objectives of YES into a series of recommendations for the proposed Civilian Climate Corps. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 3

III. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

We applaud President Biden’s January 27th “Executive Order Given the magnitude of the climate crisis, its dispropor- On Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” Sec. 215 tionate impacts on youth populations, and the delimited of the order, entitled “Civilian Climate Corps,” reads: timeline for addressing those impacts, we put forth the following recommendations for the CCC: In furtherance of the policy set forth in section 214 of this order, the Secretary of the Interior, in collaboration with the 1. As the population most impacted by the effects of the climate emergency as well as by the economic effects Secretary of Agriculture and the heads of other relevant of the COVID-19 pandemic, youth should serve as agencies, shall submit a strategy to the Task Force within core participants and co-designers in shaping the 90 days of the date of this order for creating a Civilian structure of the CCC. Climate Corps Initiative, within existing appropriations, to mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience 2. Given the global scope of the climate emergency, the workers and maximize the creation of accessible training CCC should focus on building transnational coalitions opportunities and good jobs. The initiative shall aim to of service corps across the world devoted to executing conserve and restore public lands and waters, bolster climate action. community resilience, increase , increase 3. The scale of the CCC initiative should be calibrated in the agricultural sector, protect to the massive scale of the problem that faces us, biodiversity, improve access to recreation, and address both through unprecedented fiscal investment and the changing climate. through the establishment of new models for national service. To ensure that national service is inclusive The Civilian Climate Corps (CCC), seemingly directed and accessible to a diverse pool of participants, the straight at America’s youth, builds on the legacy of President CCC should be structured as a jobs program that pays Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps and subsequent members of the Corps a living wage. national service initiatives like AmeriCorps to provide opportunities for young people to take direct action on climate. The CCC also builds on the work of other states such as California, which has established a Climate Action Corps. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 4

IV. CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND: CLIMATE EMERGENCY

xperts, scholars, and policymakers The World Bank projects that by 2050, ecological crises in Latin concur that what lies ahead of America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia will produce E 143 million climate migrants. We are already seeing the effects us is a global climate emergency. The of this across the globe, and delaying in response to climate Intergovernmental Panel on Climate emergency will result in continued mass displacement that will Change (IPCC) has advised that unless directly impact the United States. In a recent report, the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) has identified the we take radical action before 2030, southeastern United States and Caribbean as the highest-risk temperature change cannot be kept sites for “tropical cyclone displacement.” CSIS also projects that below 1.5C. climate-driven heat waves may produce more deaths than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria in aggregate. To avert this scenario, the CSIS recommends investment in reducing the drivers of climate emergency, and urges the United States to assume a leadership position among global stakeholders currently addressing the climate crisis.

Failure to act decisively in the face of this crisis will lead to severe disruptions to human society, including region-wide famine and water shortages, dramatic declines in health and wellbeing, economic and social breakdowns, mass climate migrations, and rising threats to international and human security. The predicted loss of life will be greater than in any previous international conflict and will likely accelerate over time.

At the appropriate scale, the Civilian Climate Corps can be a cornerstone of economic recovery and build a force to tackle the climate emergency while cultivating a more resilient nation, community by community. Ceri Breeze / Shutterstock.com YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 5

V. THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS (CCC)

The CCC should aim to:

• Create meaningful impact in addressing the climate emergency. • Bolster economic recovery by providing jobs and skills training to youth populations. • Bring open and accountable deliberation back to policymaking. • Help restore democratic legitimacy.

By scaling the CCC and engaging young people in finding solutions, we can help restore the next generation’s faith in America’s capacity to solve the world’s biggest challenges while re-stitching together the diverse fabric of our nation. For young people, this moment is a challenge. We can use it to renew how we govern and how we live. he Civilian Climate Corps is not CCC programs could encompass a range of service activities, only a response to the climate T including: emergency, but also a way to address the economic crisis impacting young people, MITIGATION: Continued efforts to reduce carbon in the atmosphere by expanding conversion of the and reengage them in the democratic 1 energy grid to renewables, restoring forests, and process. By empowering young people to reducing the acidification of the oceans to enhance work together in their communities on carbon capture capacity, implementing regenerative agricultural efforts and even researching new ways the most critical crises that confront their of collecting carbon in the atmosphere. generation through a public service corps

or jobs program, we can both transform ADAPTATION: Improving forest management, the environmental landscape and help restoring wetlands, building infrastructure to reforge more cohesive, purpose-driven 2 manage floods, retrofitting the built environment in preparation for severe weather events. democratic societies. The CCC thus helps restore young people’s faith in democracy, CRISIS RESPONSE: Developing community plans while furthering the path toward for crisis response in the face of climate related economic recovery. 3 disasters such as floods, fires, and hurricanes. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 6

VA. YOUTH ENGAGEMENT IN CLIMATE CORPS DESIGN

Youth populations in the United States agree with President COP26, a youth-led virtual climate conference, offers a prime Biden about the urgency of climate action. 41% of globally example. Among the 330 delegates in attendance, 72% selected surveyed young people view the climate crisis as the biggest represented countries from the Global South, and each delegate issue facing the world and as the critical challenge that defines from the Global South was eligible for a weighted 1.1 vote. [For their generation. 98% of young people believe governments additional information about the Mock COP26, please see should take the lead in protecting the environment and Appendix B below.] tackling the climate crisis. And yet, 59% don’t think their As scholars and agencies like the World Economic Forum have voices are being heard on this critical issue. We need youth noted, “communities of colour are disproportionately burdened represented — and leading — on the Biden Administration’s with health hazards” related to environmental pollutants. Recent climate task force at every level, and we need to dramatically polling has shown that youth members of communities of color ramp up opportunities for them to take climate action in their are also overwhelmingly interested in national service. Notably, communities and across the country. 60% of young people of color (aged 18-28) have expressed National service programs, like the CCC, can also play an interest in participating in national service programs, including important role in re-stitching together the fabric of the country 69% of African Americans, 58% of Latinx Americans, and 49% in this politically and socially divisive time, and empower of Asian-Americans. Put otherwise, the communities most likely communities that have been underrepresented in civic and to participate in national service programs like the CCC are decision-making processes for far too long. Civic engagement also some of the most heavily impacted by . and national service have been found to contribute to However, the current infrastructures of national service programs educational and occupational development and a sense of like AmeriCorps are not equipped with enough funding and belonging, and are popular with young people. A survey by resources to encourage participation from diverse communities, Service Year Alliance sampling over 2,300 Americans showed especially low-income ones. that 44% of young Americans are interested in national service. Young people rank the environment among the primary concerns, second only to homelessness and housing.

Extending meaningful representation to youth in the process of shaping climate action means offering them a seat at the table in designing the CCC. Young climate activists have already proven their capability and commitment in leading the fight against climate change. Zero Hour, a youth-led and founded organization, has expanded across the globe with chapters in every major city since its founding in 2008. Its annual Youth Climate Summits attract over 300 participants from across the United States. Similar organizations like the Sunrise Movement and the US Climate Action Network focus on engaging their members through grassroots training and political education and advocacy. These organizations collectively reach 600 chapters of young people across the country. Sunrise Movement Executive Director Varshini Prakash has applauded President Biden’s intention to establish the CCC.

Young climate activists worldwide are actively recognizing that climate change is a complex issue, one that disproportionately impacts communities of color and Indigenous peoples. Young people are strategically centering communities that are most heavily affected in their organizing. The Mock Philadelphia, PA/USA - July 22, 2019. Members of the Sunrise Movement gather at the Philadelphia DNC office. Rachael Warriner / Shutterstock.com YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 7

VB. TRANSNATIONAL COALITION BUILDING

Young people have already demonstrated that they are and President Biden has called for an international summit on prepared to take concrete action on climate change. Before Earth Day, April 22, 2021. In November, the United Nations the Fridays For Future climate movement started by climate Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 26th Conference activist became the largest transnational of Parties (UNFCCC COP26) will meet in Glasgow, Scotland, movement in history, there was already a robust existing where the United States and other leading countries have network of global youth-led climate organizing. pledged to update their Nationally Determined Contributions for the fight against climate change. In advance of the event, The International Student Environmental Coalition (ISEC), for the Pre-COP26 Summit will convene virtual and interactive example, unites youth advocates in over 30 countries. While meetings addressed to young people around the world, its membership is global in scale, its projects are executed including a webinar program titled “Youth4Climate Live Series: at the local level. To date, the ISEC has executed over 100 Driving Momentum Towards Pre-COP26.” The Pre-COP26 community-based climate initiatives. Its “Plant for the Planet’’ Summit will be hosted by the Italian Ministry of Environment, project, which originated in Nigeria, has already garnered the in collaboration with Connect4Climate, World Bank Group, involvement of over 8,000 students in four countries. Moreover, and the Office of Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. It’s the ISEC’s Global Youth Action Map inventories youth-led and important to note that youth already play an important role at youth-engaged climate action worldwide, demonstrating the the convening through “Young and Future Generations Day,” widespread nature of student coalitional work. where youth climate leaders from across the world come In a similar vein, the Youth Adaptation Network hosted by the together to work toward concrete solutions. Notably, in 2019, Global Center on Adaptation has developed partnerships in SustainUS sent its first all-Indigenous youth delegation to over 110 countries to connect youth to the resources needed COP25, recognizing that Indigenous peoples’ contributions to make meaningful interventions in the climate crisis. Its 2025 to this effort are historically neglected in public discourse on goal includes increasing “youth participation and engagement climate change. in decision-making processes at the local, regional, national and international level.” To that end, the process of developing the Youth Adaptation Network foregrounded the input, Now is the time for action. With young people at feedback, and co-design of young people from 120 countries. the forefront, we can finally make the critical choices needed to secure our common future, both in the Taking a cue from these initiatives, youth-led climate action United States and abroad. is also a chance to re-establish American leadership at home and abroad. 2021 will be a pivotal year for climate action

ABOVE: Turin, Italy - May 2019. Youth strike for climate march Fridays for Future. Mike Dotta / Shutterstock.com YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 8

VC. SCALE

In its March 2020 report, “Inspired to Serve,” the National entered labor markets when they are strong. To make things Commission on Military, National, and Public Service worse, a return to “normal” does not mean that we are back advocated for the need to develop new, innovative paradigms to a healthy environment for young workers. The Employment for service. The report urges policymakers to: Population Ratio (EPOP), a measure of the percentage of the Establish new models for national service. Awarding national population in the labor force for American workers has never service fellowships to support individuals participating reached the levels we have seen in the 1990s. This effect is in a service year at any certified nonprofit organization even more dramatic for young workers. Many economists will significantly expand the universe of opportunities for now think EPOP is a more powerful measure of long term national service, especially in rural and underserved areas. unemployment than the headline (U3) unemployment rate. Unlike the unemployment rate, EPOP gives us an idea of how The COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately hit young workers. many individuals are locked out of the labor force instead of The unemployment rate for workers 16-24 jumped from 8.4% just searching for work but not finding it. to 24.4%, while that of workers 25 and older increased from 2.8% to 11.3% in October 2020. This is even more pronounced EPOP peaked at 81.5% in 2000 before briefly recovering to in minority youth populations whose unemployment rate 80% in 2007, never to recover to that level until the first quarter cratered to almost 30% among Black, Latinx, and Asian and of 2020. However, EPOP for workers aged 20-24 peaked at Pacific Islander workers. 72% in 2000 never to recover to those levels again. While we While the COVID-19 crisis is temporary, its effects will be long- should expect a lower EPOP in younger age groups due to lasting. Shocks to employment can lead to weak labor markets education, the consistent lows in an age group typically out of well after the economy has exited recession. Moreover, entry school and training relative to the entire decade of the 1990s into employment in a weak labor market has consistently speaks to a structural problem integrating younger cohorts into been shown to lower lifetime earnings relative to those who the labor force.

Employment Population Ratios 1995-2021

80

70 series

EPOP 20−24 All Populations

percent 60 EPOP 20−24 for Black Americans

EPOP 20−24 for Hispanic Americans 50 EPOP 20−24 for Women EPOP 25−54 All Populations 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

year

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Author’s Calculations. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 9

Rate of Change in EPOPS Youth labor force participation responds more dramatically to economic shocks.

0.0

−0.1 24 Month Rate of Change −0.2 series

EPOP 20−24

EPOP 25−55 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 year

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Author’s Calculations.

Thus, the scale of the CCC should take into consideration the skill acquisition for high demand industries. The Job Corps, an fact that the American labor market has not been serving its education and vocational training program administered by the youth for a very long time. With this in mind, a goal of the CCC U.S. Department of Labor, on the other hand, has a strong track should be to both strengthen youth public participation and record of training and delivery of social services. However, it to be an element of an active labor market policy to on-ramp neither emphasizes the connection between career training youth into the labor force that provides participants with the and service, nor is it actively designed to address large-scale skills for lifelong economic advancement. The CCC may social concerns. Neither of these programs provide living integrate certain countercyclical elements to adjust its size wages beyond the poverty level. and scope to fluctuations in the labor market. For example, The CCC must look to the model provided by the original CCC the CCC might have a list of reserve jobs that are activated of the Roosevelt Administration. Taking a page from history, in response to an economic downturn. the CCC should endeavor to address the jobs problem facing Existing programs have some of these elements. AmeriCorps American youth. CCC jobs must not only provide a living wage, programs are effective at instilling positive attitudes toward but also integrate education, both in classroom subjects and public service. However, they are not designed to be jobs the trades into work programs with civic engagement, and offer programs and thus are not tailored for mass employment, nor a pipeline to gainful employment for program alumni. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 10

VI. PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

Responding to the need for foregrounding young people In this way, deliberative polling moves far beyond furnishing a in a participatory process of collaborative development, the series of data points: it also models a participatory, democratic Berggruen Institute has launched two partnerships with major process of engagement, and provides an opportunity for universities on deliberative processes. The goals of these participants to hear perspectives across differences of politics, partnerships include engaging youth in dialogues on the geography, socio-economic background, race and ethnicity, design of a public climate corps, encouraging greater civic religion, and lived experience. participation, while bolstering democratic processes and com- B. ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY PARTICIPATORY plementing democratic governance. These partnerships aim TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT (p TA) to ensure that youth perspectives are centrally foregrounded in shaping the future of climate action in the United States. Through a partnership with Arizona State University (ASU), the Berggruen Institute will explore how to further develop A. STANFORD DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY PRACTICUM and hone the specific contours of a CCC, with particular focus on enabling the co-design of the program by youth. Through In partnership with Stanford University, the Berggruen ASU’s pTA process, the Institute aims to establish youth Institute will host the largest national deliberative event populations’ perceptions of and response to the Executive carried out by young people in the United States. This Order regarding the CCC, and to offer data attesting to their virtual event, “Shaping our Future,” is designed to deepen degree of support for the CCC, and the likelihood of the CCC youth engagement with an understanding of public policy influencing their levels of civic engagement. choices related to youth leadership in climate action. The pTA process was developed by ASU professor Mahmud Research suggests that deliberative polling also impacts Farooque in collaboration with the Expert and Citizen the participants – reducing partisanship, increasing Assessment of Science and Technology (ECAST) network. Its understanding of alternative perspectives and deepening originators describe it as “a reflexive method for advancing the engagement in the political process. public role in science policy decision-making”: While conventional polling structures provide only schematic The current ECAST pTA method includes three participatory insight into participants’ policy preferences, the “deliberative phases: 1) Problem Framing; 2) ECAST Citizen Deliberation; and polling” model developed by Stanford professor James 3) Results and Integration. Proving adaptable and replicable, Fishkin offers a new and constructive way to use public the method has generated outputs for decision-making on a opinion. Deliberative polling proceeds as follows: variety of science and technology issues and at governance A random, representative sample is first polled on the scales ranging from the local to the national and international. targeted issues. After this baseline poll, members of the ECAST’s distributed network model has also promoted sample are invited to gather at a single place for a weekend independence, continuity, and sustainability through changing in order to discuss the issues. Carefully balanced briefing sociopolitical contexts. In this paper, we detail the current state materials are sent to the participants and are also made of the ECAST pTA method; share mini case studies to illustrate publicly available. The participants engage in dialogue with circumstances that prompted new method innovations; and competing experts and political leaders based on questions offer a vision for further developing and integrating pTA into they develop in small group discussions with trained democratic science policy decision-making. moderators. Parts of the deliberative events are often broadcast on television, either live or in taped and edited form and/or through social media and other mediums. After Across its partnerships with Stanford University and the deliberations, the sample is again asked the original ASU, the Berggruen Institute will develop a framework questions. The resulting changes in opinion represent for ensuring that youth take the role of key drivers in the conclusions the public would reach, if people had the shaping the contours of a civilian climate corps. opportunity to become more informed and more engaged by the issues. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 11

APPENDIX A: YES (YOUTH ENVIRONMENT SERVICE)

The following is adapted from an appendix published in the Berggruen Institute’s “Renewing Democracy in the Digital Age” report.

A Katz / Shutterstock.com YES addresses three primary objectives that demand our attention in the immediate future:

ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS: to slow climate change and reverse 1 mass extinctions.

ECONOMIC GOALS: to develop job skills, particularly for youth 2 populations disproportionately impacted by the economic effects of COVID-19, and to advance sustainable development, particularly in areas that were left behind in the last era Youth Environment Service (YES) of globalization. Service programs have been would provide opportunities for young shown to have significant long-term positive A economic effects. people to work together across differences to protect the planet from climate catastrophe SOCIAL GOALS: while furthering their democratic leadership, to promote the democratic integration of job skills, and capacity for common purpose. 3 youth from diverse communities to achieve a common cause. The aim is to build solidarity, which working towards a common cause helps to achieve. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 12

Michel Mond / Shutterstock.com A Katz / Shutterstock.com

Programs would be locally-driven to respond to the needs, YES programs could encompass a range of decisions, and processes of local communities. service activities, from building flood resistance to installing solar panels and conducting basic Specific program choices could be made through new forms of research. Participants would choose to spend governing bodies known as deliberative assemblies or “people’s their year engaging in one of a variety of assemblies.” These assemblies serve as an alternative method of environmental initiatives that could include: aggregating and deliberating popular interests from the electoral process. Preliminary studies have shown that such fora can be more effective at reaching agreement on contentious policies. 1. Restoring wetlands, waterways, and seas through YES also offers an opportunity to contribute to addressing racial recovery projects. injustice. The climate crisis has exacerbated the challenges faced 2. Implementing regenerative agricultural efforts. by people of color and other marginalized communities, as they are more likely to lack access to fundamental environmental and 3. Converting the energy grid to and health rights such as clean air, clean water, and nutritious food. smart alternatives. They are also more likely to live in areas vulnerable to climate 4. Supporting climate adaption projects for vulnerable hazards and threatened with toxic waste. Women, youth, and the communities who are already suffering the effects of elderly are also disproportionately affected by climate change. climate change and ecological disaster. Indeed, worldwide women make up 80% of those displaced by climate change. 5. Conducting technological and scientific research to develop methods for trapping carbon, reducing emissions, and enhancing environmental innovation.

6. Participating in policy drafting, analysis, and advocacy aimed at increasing environmental protections.

YES would offer opportunities for every young person between 18- and 25-years-old to complete one year of compensated environmental service in a public service corps. Each service would be developed nationally but could seek to address national or international environmental problems. National governments could manage programs directly or in conjunction with international institutions and civil society. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 13

APPENDIX B: CASE STUDY: MOCK COP26

When the 2020 United Nations Climate Change Conference After the two-week virtual conference, the delegates (COP26) was postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, collaborated with scientists and ClientEarth, an environmental students from Teach the Future and Fridays for Future law charity, to produce a treaty that summed up their demands. International recruited a heterogeneous group of young The official demands were grouped into five overarching people interested in moving COP26 online; thus creating themes, listed in the Mock Cop Declaration: Mock COP26. In a departure from its namesake, this 1. conference would center a diverse group of young people and their demands for the future. 2. Climate Education

From the start, the young organizers determined that their 3. Climate Resilient Livelihoods Mock COP would emphasize those most directly suffering the 4. Physical and Mental Health effects of climate change. The event heavily foregrounded the Global South, including countries in Latin America, South 5. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) Asia, Africa, and Oceania. To effectively represent these If we hope to secure the participation of young people regions, the delegate application process encouraged more in climate action initiatives, the policies and principles participation from the “Most Affected People and Areas,” or undergirding those initiatives must address their collectively MAPA. In total, 330 delegates from ages 11 to 30 attended articulated focus. In that vein, the CCC should address each from 140 countries, reflective of international participation at of the five focal points listed above. official COPs. However, 72% of the delegates were from the Global South. During the six regional caucus events leading In the wake of the event and publication of the treaty, Mock COP continues to support its 330 delegates through political up to Mock COP, delegates reviewed and voted on policies engagement in their home countries. Currently, their goal to focus on at the main event. Each delegate from the Global is to get the treaty implemented by as many governments South was eligible for a weighted 1.1 vote. as possible. Progress has been made on that front, as three The organizers of Mock COP recognized that smaller, less delegates from Mock COP have already met senior officials wealthy countries in the Global South are more vulnerable and ministers from their governments. Along with receiving to the effects of climate change, yet are represented poorly international media coverage from Time, the BBC, and CNN, in comparison to the Global North at events like COP. A Mock COP was also recognized by the United Nations. Alok delegate’s speech from Liberia explains why members of the Sharma, the President of COP26, stated that the event will Global South deserve quality advocacy: show “the appetite that exists across the world for governments and organizations to take ambitious climate action.” “We that are from the Global South have been left behind in access to information, technology, space, and financial As the case study of the Mock COP demonstrates, when young support. Based on the lack of information on climate change, people take control of the climate movement, they prioritize the many are not aware about this crisis yet they are the ones input and involvement of vulnerable communities. To take a cue from their activities, the CCC must center those who have the mostly affected.” most at stake in both the process of shaping the program, and in the program’s aims and objectives. YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION: STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS | 14

VII: SOURCES

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